Memo

TO: Sandy Jensen, Information Services Committee

FROM: Ryan Nagamatsu, Associate Director of Systems and Operations

DATE: May 26, 2016

SUBJECT: Progress Report for Proposal

 

This progress report covers work done the Project Proposal in regards to implementing a new service at Information Services. The purpose of the proposal is to implement a new service, Microsoft Azure, which would provide a cost cutting solution in response to President Schill’s recent announcement. Azure is a viable alternative to physical hardware as well as administration because of difference in cost, amount of FTE required to run services offered by Information Services, and the abundant services which could be additionally offered through the implementation of this Microsoft service.

Past Work

The work done on the Project Proposal has been a little behind deadline, however, it has not made a significant impact in the process at this time. At this time work done has primarily been researching as well as completing rough drafts for the proposal. Despite the delay in the timeline, all work that was planned for this project has been completed with the exception of including a writing document or report. The results of the proposal may impact current employment at the organization, but will also add numerous services that are not possible without the implementation of Microsoft Azure. Due to the fact that this is a service maintained in the cloud, we have ran into some issues regarding security and high availability. At this time, it is uncertain on the level of encryption for the traffic to and from Azure servers as well as whether there will need to be changes in our current Service-Level Agreement.

Future Work

Within the next two weeks, minor tweaks and last minute adjustments will be made to make this proposal as presentable and convincing as possible. Currently a reference to a report or written document is needed and should be included by the end of the upcoming week. Additionally I would like to add the amount of expenditure the university is able to save if the service is implemented as proposed. Several rounds of proofreading and editing will be offered for external recommendations.

Conclusion

As President Schill stated in his recent announcement, there needs to be a change within our current expenditure of the budget for the fiscal year.  Though the implementation of Microsoft Azure may result in the loss of current staff, with an additional offering of services and less FTE required for the administration of current services, current staff have the opportunity to refocus their efforts on these new services which potentially could make this organization operate efficiently and effectively.

Recommendations

Though the issue of security and the level of encryption have the potential to leave the university more vulnerable to attacks, we are currently making assessments on whether or not it will be a significant increase and if this added risk weighs too heavily on the security team.